Two Sides of a Coin
by DJ Xtreme
Summary: After being tossed away like some trash, Shinji Ikari has unknowingly developed a solution for some of his problems, which, of course, includes piloting Eva. Follows the main plot.


Standard disclaimer in effect.

"Quote"

'Thought'

**Two Sides of a Coin**

Chapter 1

The eternal summer sun stared down like an angry eye; clouds of various shapes and sizes glided across the clear, azure sky, as free as doves in flight. The sea, once as blue as sapphire, now was stained crimson, as if blood had poured out of an untreated wound in the Earth's crust.

A row of tanks lined up along a long strip of road by the beach, turrets pointing out to the open sea. Suddenly a blast of water came shooting out of the surface, scaring the wandering seagulls and sending them packing.

"We are very sorry; the city is in a state of emergency right now. All communication and transit lines are down at this time. Please head to the nearest shelter until further notice. We thank you for your cooperation," a metallic, feminine voice stated in monotone.

"Aw man. Why did this have to happen? This is just not my day," the lone boy ranted out as he hanged up the payphone. He was somewhat short for his age, with a messy mop of brown hair nestled on his head that could use a lot of maintenance. He would be considered very cute by girls of his age if he was not scrawny.

Indeed, fourteen-year-old Shinji Ikari had a really bad day. It all started when he got this letter from god-knows-where. How the sender managed to get his mailing address in Kyoto, he would never know.

"Actually I don't even HAVE a mailing address. I don't even have a home." That last word rolled out on his tongue in a sluggish way, as if he had trouble pronouncing it. Shinji turned to look at the letter:

COME.

Gendo Ikari

"Why did he call me here after all this time? Why… Why… Why?" Shinji mused as he stared at the letter. The last time he saw his father was when the older Ikari left him in front of some unnamed orphanage in Kyoto ten years ago, walking away as if nothing out of ordinary had happened.

Shinji lived in the orphanage for two years before moving to Osaka. The life in the orphanage just was not up to his taste. Sure, he never really did go hungry, but he felt that he did not belong in that place. The caretakers, while they did their jobs well, did not show any kind of affection for him or other kids. Every night in bed, Shinji would lay awake longing for his father to come and pick him up and get him out of this accursed place. He also kept asking why his mother had to leave him to this wretched world.

The kids were another kind of story. They tended to form close-knitted groups with a common interest. A couple of them were rather hostile to him, while the rest just did not care whether he existed or not. He did not know why the kids did not want him in their groups, but he heard caretakers talking to each other something about him being abandoned by his father as opposed to the other orphans, whose parents died when Second Impact took place a few years ago.

Shinji threw a glance at the photograph that accompanied the letter. It showed an incredibly beautiful woman in her late twenties bending down and giving the camera a wink and a "V" with her left hand. The woman had a cascade of purple hair down past her shoulders and a smile on her face.

Shinji noticed that the woman in question was wearing a tank top and a pair of shorts several sizes too small. He thought that the attire was small for her because of the way they hugged the body. The tank top looked as if it was going to burst soon due to the size of the breasts, while the tiny shorts are zippered half-way up with the main button left unsecured, giving him a preview of what was underneath.

There were also some writing on the photo, something about "picking you up" and "check out my cleavage". There was also a kiss of some sort near the bottom left corner.

Shinji sweatdropped, "What a weird woman, this Misato… Katsuragi. Does she really work for my father or is she some model who was strayed from the catwalk?"

Shinji sighed as he sat down on the sidewalk, "Well, whoever she is, she sure is late. I hope all this money I spent on that bus ticket from Osaka to Nagoya is worth all this. That's all the money I had."

That brought up the second point. To travel to Tokyo-3, Shinji took a bus bound to Nagoya from Osaka. The ticket wasn't cheap, since price of fossil fuel had skyrocketed in last decade, but this was the farthest he could go by bus with the money he had. Shinji finished the rest of the trip by walking on his two legs and hitching rides whenever he could. Not exactly the best way, but it did get him to Tokyo-3 as fast as possible.

Shinji noticed something in his peripheral vision. He looked up from the photo and letter. Standing about 200 metres away from him in the middle of the road was a lone figure. Judging from the uniform from a local school, it was a girl. While too far to see clearly, she appeared to have short, sky blue hair that reached her chin, and the pale skin indicates that she preferred to stay inside than going outside.

The sound of soaring birds distracted Shinji and caused him to look up in the open sky. Seeing the sky no longer interested him, he then turned his gazed down; the mysterious and exotic-looking girl was gone.

_My mind must be tricking me_, Shinji thought. A large boom distracted him from any further thoughts and redirected his eyes towards the countryside. Packs of VTOLs were reversing, and suddenly a hulking behemoth stepped out from behind a large, green hill. The huge thing was humanoid in appearance, with 2 legs and 2 arms. Majority of its body was covered in black, and it possessed wide shoulders and narrow hips, giving it a masculine appearance. Its small head looked more like a mask, with two holes side by side as eyes. On its torso was a single red sphere surrounded by bonelike projections that resembled ribs.

The VTOLs fired off a barrage of Vulcan guns and rockets at the giant, but the projectiles were as effective on it as peas on a steel wall. The titan immediately retaliated by raising its right arm, shooting out an energy spike from the palm at one of the airborne vehicles. The unlucky airplane got clipped on the sides and crash-landed near where Shinji was. Luckily it did not blew up in a glorious explosion immediately, but the black monster leaped forward, bringing its one foot on down on it, crushing and blowing it up into a magnificent fireball.

The resulting force knocked Shinji onto his ass, and a blue car immediately pulled up in from of him, protecting his body from the advancing fireball. The window rolled down and a face poked out, "Are you Shinji Ikari? Get in here, quick!" The visage was revealed to be the woman from Shinji's photo.

Shinji did not need a reply and quickly circled the car before opening the front passenger door and getting in. With an expert flick on the gearshift lever, Misato Katsuragi switched the car from forward to reverse and slammed on the gas pedal, causing the car to move sharply backwards while swerving around to avoid being stepped on by the black monstrosity's massive foot.

The VTOLs in the surrounding area continued to waste their ammos and missiles in vain, while the monster struck back with its arms and energy spikes. Many soldiers lost their lives in an instant, but their sacrifice were not in vain since it bought precious time for the blue Renault to get out of the danger zone.

"Sorry about that. It's just Tokyo-3 is a big city, and since we never agreed on when and where to meet…" the woman tried to apologize in a weak effort. The two were currently on the highway going to god-knows-where at a really fast pace.

"Oh no, it's all right. I also arrived here just shortly myself," replied Shinji dismissively, "Anyway, what is that thing over there?" It was obvious where his attention was now pointed at.

"That? Well, that is what we call an Angel. I'd like to tell you more, but right now I need to complete my job, which is getting you safely to…" Misato paused as she glanced at the battle. What she saw made her blood run cold.

Over in the distance, another plane made its way towards the battle. It was not a VTOL like the ones currently engaging with the enemy, but a bomber carrying a…

Misato slammed on the brakes and quickly wrapped her arms around Shinji, bracing for the inevitable impact, "OH SHIT! They're dropping a N2 mine. Watch out Shinji!"

Shinji did not have time to ask as a huge mushroom-shaped cloud extended from where the monster was standing, with a powerful force closing in, striking the blue Renault they were in off balance, and sending them flying for several hundred metres.

Shinji did not know how much time had passed, but once the blast died down, he, along with Misato, wiggled their way out of the latter's car through the side windows like a pair of earthworms. Misato stood up and patted herself to get rid of the dust accumulated on her body while looking at the car.

"Ok Shinji, on the count of three, we'll upright the car," Misato and Shinji placed their backs to side of the car, "Ok, one… two… three. PUSH!" The duo grunted as they forced all their strength on the car. Their first two attempts had shown how heavy the car was before flipping it onto its four wheels in the third try.

"ARGH oh no, look at the state of my car! I still have forty-eight more payments to go," Misato howled as she inspected the dents, scratches, and other damages scattered across the blue Renault. She then turned her gaze to her current attire, which is a black sleeveless dress with white stripes that reached barely past her shapely ass. "And my dress! I had invested a lot of money in this dress, and now it's ruined! And then my pair of designer sunglasses, with cracked lens and bent frame!" she cried at the injustice of all.

"Yup, I was right. She's definitely weird," Shinji rolled his eyes to his right. The scrawny teen silently wondered what had crawled up her ass and died. He unconsciously rubbed his arms and looked down at himself. 'More bruises coming right up. Definitely not my lucky day… What's next?' he thought with a moan.

_Later, NERV Headquarters:_

"Neh, Miss Katsuragi, how long does it take? I swear we just walked past this sign FIVE times. You're not lost… are you?" Shinji asked with emphasis on "sign" as he looked at the said object.

Thankfully, the rest of the trip had been uneventful. As it turned out, NERV, the organization in which Shinji's father was currently in charge of, was situated underneath the entire city. It was composed of a gigantic complex, complete with lakes, forest, and other geological features. At the heart of the complex stood a pyramid of modern design, where everything was carried out.

"Shut up, smartass! I'm not, okay," growled Misato in response, fuming silently, 'I swear, teenagers these days, no manners at all.' She continued to look at the map of Geo-Front issued to her, while glancing at her surroundings, 'Ok the elevator should be somewhere around here…'

'Great, not only is she a little cuckoo, but she's also directionally challenged…' Shinji thought. Suddenly, the "wall" beside him opened up like jaws of a monster, revealing an attractive woman.

The woman looked to be around Misato's age. Blond hair flowed from top of her head and ended just at middle of her neck, but her eyebrows betrayed its actual colour. A beauty mark rested just beneath her left eye. She was dressed professionally with a lab coat on the outside, indicating she was a scientist of some sorts.

"Captain Katsuragi, how long are you going to stand there for? You are already thirty minutes behind schedule. We require all of available manpower we can get," the woman frowned at her fellow co-worker's incompetence as Shinji and Misato stepped into the elevator.

"Sorry Ritsuko," Misato looked sheepish while rubbing the back of her head.

Once the elevator was set in motion, the woman now known as Ritsuko turned to look at Shinji. The boy was currently engrossed in the NERV manual that Misato handed to him during their wild car ride. "So this is Shinji Ikari, the Third Child? I have to admit I can see the resemblance," she commented, trying to liven up the atmosphere

She immediately received their undivided attention. "Oh I'm sorry, I did not introduce myself. I am Doctor Ritsuko Akagi, head of the science division here at NERV," she stuck out her right hand towards Shinji, a gesture in which he politely returned.

"So can both you tell me what my… father wanted to call me here for?" Shinji asked rather timidly, hoping the answer was that he can finally have that father-son relationship he had seen back in Osaka.

"I have no idea; this is something you'll have to bring up to him. The commander keeps his social life and past history mostly to himself. If you want, however, you can ask Sub-commander Fuyutsuki. I heard the commander was once a student of his back when he was still teaching at Kyoto University," Ritsuko replied with a white lie, 'There is no need for him to know.'

"Ah here we are. Watch your step, it's very dark," said Ritsuko when the elevator stopped and opened the door, signalling their arrival at the destination.

"Uh where are we? Huh?" The room lighted up and Shinji found himself staring a gigantic purple head that reminded him of a ceratopsid dinosaur, complete with a horn sticking out of the forehead.

"Wha… What is this?" Shinji fumbled through the pages of his NERV manual, but Ritsuko cut him off.

"You won't find this in the manual. This is a top-secret project we have been working on in preparation to this day. This is NERV and humanity's last line of defence against Angels: the artificial humanoid Evangelion, or Eva for short," Ritsuko explained.

Shinji continued to stare at the Eva's intimidating visage in awe. "Artificial humanoid Evangelion," he repeated after Ritsuko, before turning to the faux-blond scientist, "Is this what my father worked on for ten years?"

A familiar voice to the boy answered behind him, "That is correct." Shinji turned his head and saw his father. Some things stirred and burst within him: years of pain, anger, and other emotions came rushing through veins like a maglev train.

"It has been a while," Gendo Ikari looked down at his son. The older Ikari noted that Shinji had grown just the way he wanted: meek, timid, shy, and passive rather than assertive. Just perfect for the scenario.

Unable to match his stare, Shinji quickly looked away, an action causing a small smile to form on the older Ikari's face.

"We're launching the counterattack now!" Gendo announced.

"But…but Uni-00 hasn't been outfitted for combat yet, unless…" Misato paled at this point, "unless you're launching Unit-01?"

"Can't be helped. Unit-01 is the only functioning Eva at our disposal right now," Ritsuko replied calmly, despite the rather thick tension in the atmosphere, before turning to Shinji, "Shinji Ikari, We at NERV would like you to pilot Unit-01 and battle the Angel."

"Now hold on, Ritsuko. Is that why Shinji's here? I thought he's meeting his father!" Misato cut in rather abruptly.

"Oh he just did. Now we need him to destroy the Angel," replied Ritsuko rather casually.

Shinji stared at the floor, emotions surging throughout his entire body, and croaked out, "So…this…is why you called…for me…yes?" He felt a sensation on his eyes and quickly wiped them with a hand; only realizing it was the tears.

"…You are our only choice. The entire humanity rests upon your shoulders," stated Gendo.

"………." The younger Ikari seemed to find the floor very interesting.

A powerful shockwave rippled through the gigantic chamber, causing the lights to shortly shut down and bits of debris to fall down into the pool of red liquid in which the Eva is submerged neck-deep. A voice rang out from various speakers situated around the hangar, "Armour layers 1 through 7 have been blasted through! 2 more shots from the Angel and we will be exposed to the outside world!"

"My patience is beginning to wear thin. Are you going to save the entire world or not?" Gendo asked in the same pace, but the look in his eyes showed that he wanted to be elsewhere than here.

Shinji unknowingly clenched his fists and teeth as he thought furiously, 'No greetings or questions about my well-being? I know it; he disowned me for ten years, so why had a change of heart now?'

"So that is your answer?" up above, Gendo adjusted his glasses before turning to face the screens, "Fuyutsuki, go and call for Rei. She is not dead yet so she will have to pilot."

Hearing this, Ritsuko shouted out a new order to the maintenance crew, who had remained silent when all those exchanges took place. As the crew began carrying out their tasks, a door opposite to the one Shinji came from opens and a doctor and nurse rolled in a stretcher with…

A twinge of pain shot through the boy's head. He grabbed his head as if in frustration as a painful memory somehow surfaced from the dark depths of his mind.

_Flashback, five years ago:_

"GACK!" gasped a younger Shinji as he flew back several feet from the connected fist. Pains currently flowed from all limbs as he landed on the road in some forgotten alley within the red light district of Osaka.

The amount of destruction caused by the Second Impact is immense. Many cities humans had built for several decades toppled like a small flower in the middle of a storm from the gigantic waves topping around 400 metres. The resulting chaos had displaced many people homeless, and they immediately flocked the remaining cities like migratory birds. However, their presence caused many slums and many "entertainment" districts to spring up.

"Stupid brat! I told you to git as much cocaine as possible, NOT as much cola as possible. Do you have a comprehension problem?" yelled one punk as he strode up to the boy and began stomping him. The rest of the punks followed their leader and began planting shoes and boots on lying body.

"Ah…you…told…me…to get some…coke…GACK!" the nine-year-old orphan cried out between gasps of pain. He curled his body up in order to make himself as small as possible, but the group of punks were relentless in their assault.

"Yer 'lil fucker! Yer think we deel in shitz like that?!" bellowed another punk in reply. He bent down and picked up the small boy up by the scruff of the neck, before launching a vicious punch to the cheek and sending him smashing back down onto the road.

Looking bored the leading ruffian turned around and began swaggering away with hands in pockets, an action which puzzled the rest of the gang, "'Ey boss, wut ya doin'?"

"Ahhh I'm fuckin' tired. I needa sum booze to calm mah nerves down," groaned the leader as he stretched his arms before jabbing a thumb towards the quivering, bloody mass, "Leave 'im, wit a wimpy body like that, he wouldn't live fur long."

Pulling out a pack of cigarettes, he placed one stick of tobacco in his mouth and fumbled in his pockets for a lighter. Once out, he flicked the cover open and drew the miniature torch to the open end of the cigarette. Before the small flame made contact, screams roared from his back, shocking him into dropping the lighter.

The punk frantically blew on the spot on his hand where the flame had inflicted a small burn. It was nothing serious, but he still needed to put the injured hand into a cold-water bath.

"What the hell, yer good-fur-nuthin'…" He roared and turned his gaze around. However, what he saw next froze his blood and drained the colour off his face. Cold sweat poured from every pore of his body as he immediately screamed out:

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

_Present time:_

"SHINJI!"

The said person's eyes shot open and found Misato's visage in his central vision. The purple-haired woman had her hands on his shoulders and her stare bored into him.

"Are you ok?" seeing him nodding, she continued, "C'mon, we need to get you to the closest shelter."

Shinji turned his attention to the approaching stretcher and its escort, a doctor and nurse; his eyes widened when he saw the person laying down on it. A shockwave rippled across the room, causing the liquid in which the giant mecha stood in to create waves.

"LOOK OUT!!" cried Shinji as a piece of the ceiling got pulled down by gravity towards the stretcher and the pair. Acting quickly he dashed in the direction of movable bed and at the same time, a loud, splashing sound came from the direction of the Eva, but Shinji paid it no mind.

Once within distance, the teen quickly planted a foot on the side of the stretcher, forcing it to move in the opposite direction. The doctor-nurse pair turned and immediately ran after the runaway stretcher. Shinji then shut his eyes and crouched to the floor, placing his hands on his head as he wait for his inevitable death.

After a few seconds, Shinji opened his eyes and was greeted by silence. He looked at a shocked Misato and turned his attention to what she was gawking at. To his shock, a gigantic hand was a couple of metres above his head clutching the fallen debris.

"How…is this possible? The Eva…moved on its own…without the entry plug," Ritsuko gasped at the scene.

Above them all Gendo looked mostly indifferent, save for a small smirk. The scenario is currently right on the track now; a few more phases and he will be granted his wish. For now all he has to do is to keep everything in check, just in case shit hits the fan. He had learned that lesson 10 years ago, ever since that tragedy…

"Father," the older Ikari looked down at his son, who was now standing to the left of the clutching purple hand.

"You said I'm the only who can do this right? There is not much time, so I'll…pilot this thing, just this once…"

_Later…_

"Shinji, everything looks A-ok, so how do you feel?" Misato called through the mic. Beside her, a short-haired female tech was blabbering out gibberish that only Ritsuko could understand.

"Uh, fine I guess, except for this strange feeling…and the LCL…" Shinji trailed off.

"What feeling?" Ritsuko looked up in interest.

Shinji wrinkled his nose in response, "It feels…familiar…but at the same time…it's not…"

"The system checks out fine; there hasn't been any problems," the female tech, whose name was Maya Ibuki, announced.

Up above the elderly gentleman standing to Gendo's right bent down and whispered in the older Ikari's ear, "Could he have made some form of contact with _her_?"

"Whether he made contact is of little importance. The top priority right now is to fully activate Unit-01 so that we can advance the plan," Gendo replied nonchalantly.

"Unit-01 is now loaded onto the elevator. Launching preparations completed," Maya announced after the platform the huge mecha was standing on carried it to the elevator. The ceiling above opened up and revealed a long tunnel leading to the surface.

"Are you all right with this Commander?" Misato turned and asked bespectacled man.

"Of course not. Humanity will perish if we do not defeat the Angels."

"LAUNCH THE EVA!"

In an instant, energy flowed into the loaded linear elevator and caused Unit-01 to shot up like a speeding bullet. Shinji gritted his teeth as a huge pressure created from the inertia erupted and pushed him from underneath.

After what seemed to be a long time (the reality was a few seconds), a final door opened up and the elevator carrying the Eva finished its accent. The lock binding the purple mecha to the elevator during the trip then released the Eva into the street of Tokyo-3.

"I'm scared, Shinya. I want to run away, but I can't, because there is nowhere to run," muttered Shinji as the bony monster came into his central vision.

"Ok Shinji, in order to move the Eva, start by concentrating on walking. The Eva is operated through a combination of your own thoughts and the controls currently in your hands," from somewhere in the plug, the teen could hear Misato's voice calling out through a speaker.

'…Walk…' true to her words, the purple titan raised one leg and planted it forward, creating a powerful shockwave that shattered nearby glass. The other leg then rose up and came down right beside the first leg, completing the first step.

'STOP,' Shinji hastily send out another command, willing Unit-01 to a stop. Taking a big breath in order calm his shaking nerves, he sent out another command to move the Eva; however, the umbilical cable supplying energy to the horned construct somehow became tangled with its legs, toppling it to the ground.

"GET UP, Shinji! The Angel is moving to your position!" Shaking his head as Misato screeched from the speakers, Shinji looked up as the ugly face of the Angel came into the view.

In one swift movement, the black monster placed one hand on Unit-01's head and easily lifted it up. Redirecting its strength to that hand, it began crushing the Eva's head.

"Arrrgh…" as pain spread through it like a wildfire, Shinji grabbed his head, an action that the Unit-01 copied. The boy's teeth gritted as he struggled, the pain slowly but surely becoming unbearable.

"What…the…hell…is…this?"

"Pressure detected applying against the skull!"

"The cranial casing is showing signs of cracks! At this rate, the head will be crushed!"

Upon hearing this, fear gripped Shinji's heart, and his breaths sped up, "Arrrgh…please…urrrgh…someone…help me…"

"_Man, you just can't do anything right, can you?_" a rough-sounding voice asked from the back of his mind.

In an instant, Shinji's eyes shot open widely, but instead of the usual brown, the irises were yellow like topaz. In addition to the eyes, a sinister grin materialized itself on the face.

Back in NERV, Maya gasped as her console flashed a new update to the Eva's status, "This can't be right! Unit-01's synch ratio has increased to 63.8 from the original 40.4!"

Ritsuko was dumbstruck, "An improvement of over fifty percent!? Impossible!"

"What's the status of the Eva and the pilot?" demanded Misato.

Mokoto, the second member of the Bridge Bunnies, responded, "Other than a couple of cracks on the head casing, the Eva is fully operational. As for the pilot, his heartbeat has returned to normal levels, suggesting that the accumulated stress is gone. In addition, his adrenal glands seem to be pumping out a rather large amount of adrenaline."

Hearing this, Gendo's small smirk turned upside down into a small frown. 'This is not part of the plan," the scheming commander of NERV thought, "The boy is supposed to be afraid, and the fear in turn fully awakens Unit-01."

To his right, Vice-Commander Fuyutsuki simply glanced down at his former student.

Back in the plug, the young pilot sent out a fourth command, and when the Eva received it, its two hands grabbed the Angel's arm, approximately where the wrist should be if there was one, and snapped the offending arm with a sickening crack.

In response, the Angel dropped the Eva to the ground and the purple construct immediately followed up with a foot sweep to the back of the monster's legs, tripping it. The Eva then planted its right foot down on the laying body and leaned down towards it with its right arm propped against the right knee.

"Well now that that I've given you a big and nice freebie, I believe it's my turn for some fun! Heh heh heh," the teen chuckled out through the external speakers of the Eva.

The Angel's head tilted towards Unit-01 and fired off a powerful blast. The attack was, however, quickly anticipated and Unit-01 swiftly performed a series of backflips to get out of the way.

"Ha good, you still have some fight left. My blood's starting to boil!" With that the Evangelion charged forward in a tackle.

But before the Eva could make a contact, the eyes on the bony face of the Angel glowed with a red light, and an orange hexagon-shaped barrier materialized between it and Unit-01.

"The Angel has erected an AT-Field!" Shigeru, the final member of the Bridge Bunnies, announced.

"With that thing between the two, Shinji won't be able to touch the Angel!" stated Ritsuko.

"I knew you are going to that! Eat this, bitch!" The 14-year-old cried out as he quickly sent out a fifth command to the mecha.

"Unit-01 is deploying its own AT-Field," Maya called out to the rest.

"He's…going to smash through the Angel's AT-Field!" Ritsuko gasped out.

True to the blond scientist's words, the purple Eva deployed its own orange and hexagonal-shaped barrier, and with that barrier and the force of the tackle, it was able to break through the Angel's own AT-Field and collide into the grotesque monster from outer space. The combined mass blew through several skyscrapers, a few even collapsed from such a strong force, before crashing back on the street.

"What's the matter, can't take the heat? Maybe you should run back your mama? ANSWER ME, BITCH!" Cocking a fist, Unit-01 began punching the Angel on head repeatedly.

Getting no answer from the Angel, Unit-01 grabbed the head, brought it up, and threw one final punch, knocking it back onto the road.

Apparently having enough, the Angel quickly got up and tried jumping at Unit-01, which sidestepped and knocked it back down again with a side kick this time.

"Hahaha, think you could catch me off guard like that, you asshole? You're still too early to give me any workout. You should've stayed with your mama!"

"_Shinya…_" said another voice from the back for the boy's mind, this time completely different. This voice, while male, seemed rather gentle.

"Huh? What do you want, Shinji? Can't you see I'm busy?" "Shinya" growled.

"You need to finish this now. Your tussle with the Angel is devastating the entire city." "Shinya" looked at the landscape around; craters and ruins surrounded the two behemoths.

"Sigh fine, I'll finish this quick; however, there is something I need to do first," opening the left spaulder, Shinya pulled out the progressive knife.

"Progressive knife has been deployed," Mokoto called out when a series of windows appeared on his monitor.

Flipping the downed Angel onto its back, Unit-01 crouched down and jammed the blade into the body, right beside where the red sphere was. In one swift movement, the sphere was freed and Unit-01 grabbed it and popped the red ball into the mouth, consuming it.

"_Ugh why did you do that?_" Shinji asked from the back of the mind.

"Oh, didn't you hear about warriors from the past who ate those that they vanquished? By devouring the flesh, they gained the power of that particular being," Shinya replied back rather casually, "Anyway, you can take over now, I need to have some rest. I'll see you later."

Closing his eyes and leaning back into the seat, the 14-year-old let out a sigh of relief, glad that the crisis was over.

_Meanwhile, back in NERV…_

"The target has been silenced," Mokoto announced.

"He had Unit-01 consume the core… Is he integrating the S2 Engine of the Angel into Unit-01?" Ritusko pondered at this.

Misato did a double-take, "Come again?"

"Installing an S2 Engine would eliminate the requirement for the umbilical cable, but we have yet to attempt something like this. There are…"

"Yeah yeah you can spare me the details later," Misato waved her off, much to Ritusko's annoyance, "Right now we need to retrieve the Eva."

Grabbing the microphone, she called Shinji, "Hey Shinji."

No answer.

"Shinji!" the purple-haired repeated, louder this time.

No answer.

"I'll turn on the camera inside the entry plug," Mokoto offered as he inputted the command for the instrument, "Internal camera on."

"ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ"

On the main monitor was Shinji leaning back on the seat; light snores came flooding from the speakers. He looked rather peaceful…

"Looks like he's tired from the ordeal," said Maya as she turned towards Ritsuko and Misato.

"That stupid idiot! How dare he sleep on the job!?" an angry vein threatened to pop out of Misato's forehead as she continued ranting.

However, when everyone near her all turned around to avoid her wrath, a ghost of a smiled flashed across her face as she gazed at Shinji's sleeping visage, 'Thank you Shinji."

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

Author's Rant:

Whew, I finally got this one done. I could add a scene with Gendo at the end, but I got lazy and I really don't want to think about his conniving self.

Believe it or not this is actually my first Eva fic, not Midori. In fact I came up with Midori while writing this, and quickly wrote it before I could forget.

This fic will follow the main plot, but there will be differences obviously.

Some characters might go OOC because I'm bad at keeping them in character. I'll do my best in keeping their characters intact though.

Shinya Ikari is, in my simplest term, my "OC", who is inspired from Hallelujah Haptism of Gundam 00. In other words, he is Shinji's Mr. Hyde. I came up with him after seeing many badass Shinji fics and thinking to myself, "Why not have a 'passive' Shinji and badass Shinji all together in one fic?"

You can hate Shinya if you want, since not only is he important to the story, but depending on the course of the story, he might end up becoming a bigger bastard than Gendo.

NO pairings planned for this fic; I want this fic to be somewhat dark and a pairing will ruin the atmosphere.

Yes my grammar and usage need work, so no need to remind me.

Lastly, just to warn you, this fic won't be updated soon because I have other fics to write and put up. Given my slow updates (about once a month) it will take a while before I start on the next chapter.


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